An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Alexandra Coțofană ( Zayed University Abu Dhabi, and Environmental Humanities Fellow 2021):
Xenophobic Sentient Landscapes
Abstract:
Dr Alexandra Coțofană will present ethnographic data from her fieldwork in Romania, centering the concept of xenophobic sentient landscapes. The work-in-progress will discuss ontologies of Romanian landscape as xenophobic, starting from a military failed accident in 2011 which was described on right-wing blogs as the Carpathian Mountains exhibiting anti-Semitism, and moving down historically through moments when the national literature has understood the landscape as inherently xenophobic. The talk will touch on the gaps in the literature on sentient landscape, and the denial of coevalness that comes with romanticizing sentient landscape as inherently good. The talk hopes to shed some light on the multi-layered reality of a space in which anti-colonial sentiments and right-wing values coexist, and to further illuminate colonial complicities. Furthermore, I will explore the theme of home as a locale of fieldwork, and the ways in which ethnography and understandings of time have furthered the project.
Please contact iash@ed.ac.uk for a link to join the seminar.